


Something like love

by nishanightray



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, Holding Hands, M/M, POV Third Person, cute first-years, futamoni and sasakama are actually only hinted, kogane's a giant baby, sakunami has to take care of him, sakunami's pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 09:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6111745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nishanightray/pseuds/nishanightray
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Holding hands with Koganegawa became kind of a habit.(...) He really was like a giant baby, and Sakunami found that it was far easier keeping tabs on him than losing him and having to fetch him later, so they got to the point that Kogane would automatically search for his hand whenever they got off their bus and made it to the courts. Taking care of Kogane became natural for him.</p><p>(basically, Sakunami is the one responsible for taking care of Koganegawa and somewhere along the way he falls in love with him)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something like love

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing following [ this prompt](http://imaginethehaikyuukids.tumblr.com/post/108827566182/imagine-sakunami-having-to-drag-koganegawa-around), but then i ended up adding more and more things... And in the end, of course, I wrote something entirely different *sighs*

 

Sakunami had never thought he would become a regular so fast in high school – he had never been a regular in his junior high, even though he had been practicing his receives for years, since it became evident that he wouldn’t grow much taller than he already was, but he also knew that there would be more amazing players out there.

Which, of course, was true.

He knew that Datekougyou was a good school, other than the only one that was only a few blocks far from his house, and that he had acquired some new players in the last year. He heard about the new ‘Iron Wall’, which sounded like the coolest thing he’d ever heard of and, well, it was cool. The team was full of cool and amazing guys that made Sakunami stare in awe. But they didn’t have a libero anymore, since the last one had graduated recently, so Sakunami found himself being a regular in a heartbeat – not that it took it for granted. He continued to work hard, twice as harder as he did in junior high. And the others worked hard, too. They were a good team.

Still, they lost against Karasuno in the Interhigh Preliminaries. It had been the first tournament that Sakunami had entered as a regular.

 

-

 

The Spring High arrived sooner than he thought. He found himself excited at the thought of playing on an official court again, and maybe having the chance of a rematch with Karasuno. His teammates probably thought the same.

They were a new team, now, formed only by second-years and first-years; the third-years had retired after Interhigh, and even though they still showed up sometimes, they all knew that they needed to form a new group. A new Iron Wall was built, or maybe it was better to say it was under-construction, and they had new arms to fight on the court.

Although it was already his second tournament as a regular, Sakunami still felt a bit nervous. He felt sweat in his palms, and gripped them in his tracksuit. He directed his attention towards Futakuchi, who as the new captain was in charge of checking they were all present.

“Koganegawa? _Koganegawa_ , of course,” Futakuchi said, frowning deeply, and muttered a curse as he thread his fingers in his hair nervously. “Where did that idiot go? Has someone seen him?”

Sakunami looked around to see that, in fact, Koganegawa was nowhere to be found. Everyone else looked at each other, then shook their head with the same expression, one of resignation mixed with exasperation and worry. By then, they were all used to Koganegawa’s antics, and even more used to Futakuchi’s lack of patience towards his kouhai.

“ _How did we lose a guy who is almost two meters tall?_ ”

Futakuchi looked like he wanted to hit something; he'd probably have hit Koganegawa, if the latter had been nearby. It was kind of amazing how Futakuchi actually retained himself from hitting Koganegawa every time the latter irritated him. It was even more amazing how he still could manage the strength to get angry at him, whereas everybody else including the coach had just grown resigned to it. On the other hand, Aone didn’t look annoyed in the least – maintaining his controlled, blank expression, even now he was probably distracted thinking about Karasuno’s little guy or some other strong players.

“Someone go fetch him before Futakuchi has a middle-life crisis,” Onagawa said in his sleepy, always seemingly bored voice. Obara and Mai chuckled, and Onagawa pulled a lazy smirk.

“I’m _not_ having _a_ _middle-life crisis_!” Futakuchi glared at them, which only made them more amused.

“Sakunami,” the coach sighed, seemingly wanting to end their bickering as soon as possible, “Please go look for Koganegawa and bring him back as Soon as possible”.

Someone else would have probably said, _Why me?_ , but Sakunami simply nodded. The coach had by long made clear that Sakunami would be the one in care of Koganegawa, as they were in the same year and even in the same class, so Sakunami just went looking for him without questioning it.

Futakuchi hadn’t been wrong when he said it was weird losing a guy that tall. Indeed, Sakunami didn’t find any particular difficulties in spotting him – Koganegawa was tall, awkward and had the craziest hair Sakunami had ever seen. It seemed that he had been swarmed by people right at the entrance and he was now wandering hopelessly, looking like he couldn’t quite decide which direction to take. When Sakunami called him, Koganegawa turned and lighted up in relief.

“Sakunami-kun! Sorry, I got lost!” he shouted at a far higher voice than required, making Sakunami wince a little.

“Yeah, I know,” he simply said, offering a smile. “Let’s go back together.” _Before Futakuchi-senpai has a nervous breakdown,_ he thought, but didn’t say. It would have made Koganegawa even more nervous than he was and he tended a lot of mistakes when he was nervous, which often resulted in him getting more nervous and making more mistakes and – well, it became an endless cycle.

Before he could think better of it, Sakunami grabbed his teammate’s hand and started dragging him to where he had left the others. To his own surprise, Koganegawa didn’t comment on it, but simply let himself be dragged around.

 

-

Holding hands with Koganegawa became kind of a habit.

They would walk at the end of the group and hold hands and Kogane would let himself be dragged around obediently. Kogane had the worst sense of direction, Sakunami learned, to the point of not being able to tell apart his right and left when he was anxious. He really was like a giant baby, and Sakunami found that it was far easier keeping tabs on him than losing him and having to fetch him later, so they got to the point that Kogane would automatically search for his hand whenever they got off their bus and made it to the courts. Taking care of Kogane became natural for him. It also made him somehow firmer, more determined, and helped him focus both on the court or outside. Sakunami also liked to think that they had become good friends as they started to call each other by nicknames (since the day Mai had first called him that, ‘Saku-kun’ had become pretty much the name he went by in the team, while ‘Kogane’ was simply shorter and therefore easier than say ‘Koganegawa’). They also started going home together, even though Kogane lived a bit further than him, and they sometimes held hands even during that time, although it wasn’t really necessary.

As expected from someone who played both as a setter and as a middle blocker, Kogane’s hands were rough and hard and his fingers were bandaged more often than not. They were also very warm and far bigger than his. Sakunami didn’t mind much. Whenever he glanced up, he would notice a fond smile on Kogane’s face. He tried not to think much of it. He might have to add ‘cute’ to his earlier descriptions of him.

 

-

 

They lost their second match, against Aobajousai, that was much stronger than them. They also lost the chance to have a rematch with Karasuno.

Sakunami knew that it wasn’t over, that they would have other chances, that the Iron Wall could always be built again, as Moniwa put it; still, it was sad.

During the return trip, Kogane sat next to him on the bus and gripped his hand tight as he tried to contain his own sadness.

 

-

 

“ _For the love of_ … Kogane, how many times do I have to tell you? Don’t open your arms too much! Do you want people to spike right through you?!”

“No, senpai! Not at all, senpai! I’m sorry, senpai!”

Futakuchi and Kogane’s voices resonated, as usual, all through the gym. They were always the loudest, for one reason or another. Futakuchi carded his fingers through his hair and ruffled them nervously, hesitating to return to his position. He was probably wondering whether Kogane had really understood what he meant or not, which seemed to trouble him most of the time.

Kogane had a lot of good will, but he wasn’t the most brilliant when it came to game sense and his technique was still rough. He was pretty simple-minded and it showed through his plays.

“Don’t open your arms too much,” Futakuchi repeated after a while, narrowing his eyes at him.

“No, senpai!” Koganegawa said enthusiastically and, in fact, he didn’t.

He blocked Onagawa’s next spike with his own face, though, and Sakunami wasn’t actually sure that was much better, especially since a streak of blood started to spill from Kogane’s nose right after that.

“Oh my god, not this _again_ ,” Futakuchi muttered.

Meanwhile, Kogane didn’t seem to know what to do and tried to clean himself with his hands, only making it worse by smearing blood over his cheeks. Futakuchi warily glanced at the benches, where the coach sat holding his head in his hands, apparently discouraged. Unfortunately, Mai had to do a commission, so she wasn’t there to help them.

“I can’t do this,” Futakuchi sighed, then looked at Sakunami. “Saku-kun, do me a favor and go help that idiot fix himself, please”.

Sakunami nodded – he’d do it even if he wasn’t asked, frankly, and he had already moved when Futakuchi had turned to him. He grabbed Kogane’s left arm and lead him to the benches. He leaned to find a towel he could use to clean him up and also managed to find the first-aid kit and a large pack of Band-Aids. When he turned to Kogane, he saw that the other had stopped trying to clean himself and was watching him intently. Sakunami felt himself grow a little embarrassed at his stare.

“Sit down, or I can’t reach,” he said, looking up.

Kogane nodded – maybe a little too enthusiastically, to the point that he winced in pain- and sat obediently on the bench. His face then lighted up as though he was struck by an idea, and he proceeded to grab Sakunami by his arms and drag him between his long legs, spread out in front of him.

“You can reach better like this, right?” he said, a hint of pride in his voice, as though he’d had the most brilliant idea. Sakunami felt himself smiling a bit in response to that.

“Yeah,” he said. Even though he was embarrassed, he could indeed reach better. First he cleaned his face with the towel, then opened the Band-Aids. Kogane only let out a little yelp and closed his eyes tightly as Sakunami applied the patch, pressing it gently on the bridge of his nose.

Only then he realized that Kogane’s arms had somehow naturally found a place around his body. This guy was a good thirty centimeters taller than him and his long arms and legs managed to envelop Sakunami almost completely. As Kogane slowly opened his eyes and blinked at him, Sakunami felt his face grow unbearably warm. He had the odd feeling that his nape was starting to burn under the stares of their teammates.

“Er… y-you can let me go now,” he said, and blushed as he watched Kogane’s cheeks flush even more.

“R-right! I’m sorry!” He quickly disentangled his long limbs, scrambling to give Sakunami enough space to move away. The libero slowly took a couple of steps back and stole a glance at his back – it seemed that everyone was trying their best to look at something else, _anything_ but them. Sakunami didn’t know if he was grateful or not.

 

-

 

Being a second-year didn’t change almost anything for Sakunami, except that the third years had graduated and that now a small group of first years called him ‘senpai’. Being a senpai meant that also Kogane was one, which was, frankly, kind of amusing since he was still the biggest baby ever. He had grown stronger and his technique was better now, but he was still simple-minded, awkward, unnecessarily loud and excessively worried about dump shots (which seemed to be the coolest ultimate move to him).

He also continued to get lost when they went to tournaments, unless Sakunami was there to hold his hand.

Inter-High was starting again, and when they got off the bus the first thing Kogane did was reaching for Sakunami’s hand, holding it securely in his own. The gesture was so natural that Sakunami didn’t even flinch at it. He noticed, though, that his friend’s hand seemed warmer and sweatier than usual and that his face had grown a bit flushed.

Pulling him behind the others as usual, Sakunami turned to look up at him. Oh no, did Kogane grow even taller during the summer? It was getting really difficult to talk to him ( _If only Nature would make me taller, too_ , Sakunami thought _, just only a little_...).

“Kogane, are you okay?” he asked, shrugging other worries away. Kogane flinched a bit, startled out of his own thoughts, and smiled nervously.

“Yes, I. I just,” he said, then hesitated, “I’m a bit anxious, I guess?” He let out a quiet laugh and that was kind of weird per se, because Kogane was never _quiet_. Sakunami tried not to frown much and instead offered him a smile.

“It’ll be okay,” he said. “You practiced a lot, remember? And we have your back, anyway”.

At that, Kogane looked more relieved.

“Yeah!” he beamed. “You’re always there to help me, Saku-kun!”

It wasn’t actually what Sakunami had tried to say, but whatever; if it made Kogane happier, it was good of him to think that. Never mind the fact that Sakunami himself was happy to hear it, too.

 

-

 

It was after their first match, when Kogane’s excitement for their first win lead him to envelop Sakunami in a big, crushing hug, literally sweeping him off his feet, that the libero realized that what he felt for Kogane was probably something like love. It was embarrassing realizing it like that, as he was being crushed against the other’s chest and raised up in the air as though his weight amounted to nothing. Even as they were leaving the court to head towards their supporters, his heartbeat kept beating steadily and his chest swell with affection just by watching Kogane smile happily.

“Let’s give our thanks!” Futakuchi said loudly, grinning. It was rare to see him wear such a honest, genuinely happy smile, and it grew even wider when he glanced up and saw Moniwa up there, frantically waving his hands at them. But, before either of them could talk, Kamasaki and Sasaya started teasing Futakuchi for wanting to act cool in front of Moniwa, making the both of them blush furiously. “At least _I_ _am_ cool, Kamasaki-san!” Futakuchi countered, naturally angering Kamasaki, who threated to come down there and fight him. Sasaya rolled his eyes at the exchange, while Moniwa laughed lightly.

Futakuchi and Moniwa had apparently started dating a few weeks after the third years’ graduation; Sakunami didn’t really know the details, but everybody on the team was happy for them (plus, teasing them seemed to have become Kamasaki and Sasaya’s most favorite pastime, even though they were together too and everybody also knew this). Nobody would have complained if Kogane and him started dating, or something. Probably. Sakunami also thought his love might be reciprocated to some extent, if Kogane searching his hand even in a moment like this was anything to go by.

They were going back, going down a flight of stairs, when Sakunami thought he’d finally gathered the courage to say something. He pulled on Kogane’s hand, letting him know he had stopped walking. The other turned to look at him, curious, still smiling a bit; he had already gone down a couple of steps, but he still managed to be a bit taller than Sakunami.

Well, at least it was somehow more reachable, Sakunami thought, just before following his instinct and leaning to kiss the other lightly on the cheek. He immediately felt Kogane’s face grow warm, but he didn’t move as Sakunami stepped back quickly.

“I like you, please go out with me,” he said, hoping his voice sounded steadier than his heartbeat was. Kogane’s face flushed as though all the blood had gone to his head, to the point that his cheeks were as red as apples (Sakunami was sure he was the same).

“Y-you mean, like,” Kogane spluttered, his eyes widening comically, “ _d-dating_?”

Sakunami breathed in deeply.

“Yes, if you want to,” He somehow managed to say before Kogane surged forward and planted a messy kiss to his lips – or at least he _thought_ he was going for the lips, but he missed and planted one on his cheek, nearly giving him a head butt.

“I’m sorry! I’d be happy to, please take care of me!” Kogane shouted, probably loud enough that everybody nearby could hear him, then laughed and squeezed Sakunami’s hand tightly.

At this point, their teammates finally seemed to noticed something was going on behind them.

“Wait, what?”

“Oh my god, I think they kissed”.

“Is everyone gay on this team?”

“Get a room!”

“What the heck, guys, I thought you were already married! I can’t deal with you two acting even more sappily,” Futakuchi said, shaking his head as he pretended to be annoyed at them, but then smirked. “Well, congratulations, I guess”.

Kogane looked like he didn’t know whether to say ‘sorry’ or ‘thanks’, and to everyone’s amusement he finally shouted a mix of both, making Futakuchi sigh exasperatedly. Sakunami smiled and squeezed his boyfriend's hand once more.

**Author's Note:**

> I am weak to datekou, and i am weak to pairings with height difference, so how could I ignore kogasaku??  
> Tbh i already shipped it bc of the manga, but the anime has given me so many feels...  
> Please support kogasaku and datekou, they are so important!!
> 
> ("Is everyone gay on this team?" YES. Yes, probably.)


End file.
